50-Over Cricket’s Midlife Crisis, With India Twist
Champions Trophy, an ODI tourney, will get real buzzy only with an Indo-Pak final. Indian selectors, however, have batted for the past and interrupted the future
When the last ICC Champions Trophy took place in 2017, Gautam Gambhir was yet to join, let alone walk out of active politics; Virat Kohli was making cover drives look easier than drinking coffee, and Kedar Jadhav was a key finisher in the lower middle order. Since then, ICC has organised three T20 World Cups (2020, 2021, 2024), two with Corona around. Which means that the attempt to manufacture hype notwithstanding, the ODI championship isn’t even close to entrée on ICC’s menu.
The predicament isn’t specific to Champions Trophy. Over the decades, ODI has developed an identity crisis; it neither enjoys Tests’ elite status, nor T20s’ new-money brash. In 16 months since the 2023 ODI World Cup final, top cricket boards scheduled far fewer ODIs than T20s. India played only 9 ODIs, the lowest among Test playing nations, in these months. In comparison, it played 26 T20Is in 2024.
